Mr Osam Duodu chief tactician of the senior national team, the Black Stars, has said that he would shut the doors of the national team on players who fail to report to camp by October 18.

Speaking to the GNA Sports on Wednesday, Mr Doudu said he would not condone truancy to the detriment of the overall objectives of his preparations for the Cup of African Nations (CAN) 2002, which gets underway in Mali next January.

"We are in a serious group and we must define our priorities in the interest of the nation because the whole country expects us to do well in Mali.'

He said he has had the complement of players from all clubs except Kumasi Asante Kotoko and wondered why there are media speculations of players abandoning the national camp.

The coach lauded the management of Obuasi Goldfields and Accra Hearts of Oak for communicating with him regularly on the availability or otherwise of their players, adding that Goldfields indeed sought permission for their players before they went to Cote d' Ivoire for a Confederation of African Football (CAF) cup match against African Sports.

He said Mr Harry Zakkour, chairman of Hearts of Oak telephoned to inform him that Ishmael Addo was permitted to travel and when he returned, the Chairman called again to inform him about his (Addo) return and his availability for camping.

Mr Duodu said though he has written to both the chairman and head coach of Kotoko he has not yet received any replies from them.

"I am still expecting replies to my letters but when we regroup on October 15, any player who does not come before the week's training ends must count himself out of my plans for Mali."

He asked the administrators of premier league clubs to take a cue from their counterparts in Senegal and Burkina Faso who are regularly releasing their players into their national camps thereby enabling them to play friendly matches, which are relevant to building their teams.

On the final outlook of his team for the championship, the coach said the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has opened discussions with the foreign-based players while his personal agents, Seabreeze Ventures are constantly feeding him with information on all our players in Europe.

"Abubakar Yakubu has been in tremendous form at Ajax, Razak Ibrahim is fantastic at Empoli, Peter Ofori Quaye has started scoring again at Olympiakos and Derek Boateng is back on the blocks at Panathanaikos. The coach was confident that he would raise a strong team to put up a big challenge for the trophy in Mali.